I forgot to mention this in the Author's Note in the last chapter, but I just wanted to thank Music Sweet Music for giving me the idea for that chapter. Thanks! Hope you don't think I forgot about you! ;-)

Chapter 25

January 30th, 1970

A lot had happened in the past two years. Hawkeye got to be there to help teach his children how to walk and talk and was loving every minute of being a parent. Margaret recovered from losing her father not too long after he died since they weren't that close anymore, and got a part time job at the hospital, working right along with her husband once again. BJ and Benji had finally admitted to the fact that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and when the Pierces were in Mill Valley they went on quite a few 'dates', although Hawkeye tended to follow them without them knowing. Jim O'Donnell returned from Vietnam, much to his sister delight, in one piece. He had changed a lot, and took a lot of time to readjust to life in Boston, but when he did (with a lot of help from the Korean War vets) he was pretty much the same guy that left.

BJ was now seventeen years old, and for her sixteenth birthday, Hawkeye gave his daughter his Firebird when he got a new car of his own. She was now a senior and was going to graduate in about four months. Right now, she was in her most dreaded class: Calculus. She was trying her hardest though and kept up her 3.97 grade point average.

"Beatrice Pierce please report to the office." BJ sighed with relief when the PA system called her away from the boring lecture. She quietly grabbed her books since school was almost over for the day and made her way through the small building and into the office.

"Hi Beatrice. How are you today?" Mr. Tory, the guidance counselor, greeted her.

"Fine Mr. Tory, but I really wish you'd call me BJ." She smiled.

"I got corrected like that a lot from your father too when I called him Benjamin." He laughed. "I'll try to remember, really."

"So, did you want to see me?" She asked, looking around and seeing that no one else was in the room.

"Ah yes." He remembered. Mr. Tory was in his sixties, but was still a very good counselor. "I got a package in the mail this morning and I thought you'd like to see it." He smiled as he grabbed a big manila envelope from his desk with his name on it, and handed it too BJ. She was sort of confused, but took the package anyway and opened it for herself. When she read the letterhead, her eyes got pretty big with surprise. It was from the University of Iowa.

"I was accepted!" She exclaimed.

"More than that." Mr. Tory chuckled. "You've also been given a free ride. They're paying for everything. Tuition, dorm expenses, everything."

"Wow…but why?" She asked, sort of in shock.

"Well, as soon as they saw that you got a thirty one on your SAT's, they wanted to snatch you up before any other college did."

"Wow!" BJ looked down at the huge packet of papers that had all of the information about the college in them. "Thanks."

"Any time." He laughed, seeing how excited she was. "Why don't you go tell your parents." The bell had just rung.

"Right." She thanked him again and went down to her locker to pick up her homework.

"So, what did you do?" Sarah, one of her good friends from the high school teased her.

"I didn't do anything." BJ laughed as she closed her locker and got her keys out of her pocket. On their way out to the parking lot, she explained everything.

Sarah laughed when a thought struck her.

"What's so funny?" BJ asked.

"You got a free ride to a school who's mascot are the Hawkeyes." They both laughed at how ironic it was as they went their separate ways.

"Mom! Dad! Grandpa!" BJ ran through the door and into the kitchen where she heard voices coming from.

"What is it?" Margaret asked from where she was sitting at the table with Henry and Franklin on her lap. Maggie jumped off of her dad's lap and ran over to give her big sister a hug at the knees.

"Well, anyone who's going to college in the fall and doesn't have to pay for it, raise your hand." She laughed as she picked Maggie up. Maggie raised her hand and everyone laughed. "Not you Magpie." BJ grabbed her hand and kissed it. "Me!" She exclaimed to her family.

"What are you talking about Beej?" Hawkeye asked.

"Mr. Tory got a package this morning." She pulled out the envelope and handed it to her father.

Hawkeye looked at the letter that the college had sent for BJ. "I'm proud of you kiddo." He hugged her when she set Maggie down.

"Thanks dad."

"I think this deserves a trip to the Lobster Shack." Daniel announced after he and Margaret gave the college bound girl a hug.

That Night

"Okay college girl." Margaret walked into her oldest daughter's room. BJ was once again at her typewriter, but before she had walked in, she had expertly stuffed the written on papers into the drawer. By now, there were about a hundred and thirty pages with the black type on it. Before she finished what she was saying, Margaret looked at BJ with a questioning look. "What are you writing that you don't want your mother to see?" She smiled.

"Nothing." BJ shrugged innocently, but turned a little red.

"Uh hu." Her mom nodded. "Well, I came up to tell you that, even though you're almost a college girl, you need to get in bed."

"One more hour?" The girl begged.

"I already gave you another hour. It's past 10:30...and a school night." She looked down at her watch.

"Alright." BJ reluctantly got up and turned the desk lamp off. Margaret went over to pull the blankets down for her while her daughter whipped a brush through her hair.

"Are you excited?" The blonde asked from where she sat on the bed, waiting to tuck her daughter in. It didn't matter how old BJ was, Margaret was determined to tuck her daughter in every night she was at home.

"Kind of." She shrugged, putting her brush down and crawling into bed.

"What's the matter?" Her mother was way too good at figuring out when her daughter was unsure of something.

"I am excited, but I just wish that I had gotten a free ride to a school closer to Maine. I mean…Iowa is over fifteen hundred miles away. How am I supposed to be that far away from you guys?"

"You can't let that stop you Beej." Margaret leaned up against BJ's white headboard and put her arm behind her daughter's head. "We'll miss you very, very much. But I read that pamphlet that the college sent you. It sounds like a wonderful school."

"Yeah, I know…"

"And their American Literature program will be great for you. You're going to try to get your degree in American Lit. right?"

"Gonna try." She nodded. BJ had changed her mind quite a few times, but it all went back to wanting to be an author.

"You can do it." Margaret kissed her daughter's forehead and started to pull her arm out from under her head.

"Mom, wait." BJ put a hand on her mother's.

"What is it?" She asked, sitting back down.

"I won't know anyone there…you know I'm not good at making friends…and I can barely talk to people I don't know."

"Oh, I don't think you have to worry too much about that. You didn't really have any problems making friends when we moved here. Everyone will love my little doodlebug." She hugged her.

"I'm dad's little doodlebug." BJ laughed.

"Don't tell him, but you were mine first." She tickled BJ in her 'tickle spot' right under her chin, which set them both into a fit of giggles.

"Anyone mind telling me what's so funny up here?" Hawkeye had just appeared at the doorway, laughing himself.

The two laughing women tried to pull themselves together before their noise made its down to the kids' room and woke them all up. "I'm just trying to cheer our daughter up." Margaret told him, still laughing a little.

Hawkeye was a little confused. "What's the matter Beej?" He asked, coming to sit by his wife on the bed.

"Well," the laughter had died down all the way by now, "I guess I'm a little scared."

"How come?" Her father asked.

"I'll be over fifteen hundred miles from home and I'll miss you guys, grandpa, and the kids like crazy." She pointed out.

"We'll miss our little doodlebug too." He hugged her. His wife and daughter started laughing again. "Okay, I'm missing something." Hawkeye's eyebrow raised in question as he started laughing with the two.

"Never mind." Margaret chuckled as she stood up.

"Okay then." The raven haired man had a thoroughly confused look on his face. "Goodnight you little Hawkeye." They all laughed.

"How in the world did I get a free ride to a college where their mascot has the same name as my father?!" She laid down as her parents each kissed her on the forehead. She didn't really feel like she was seventeen, but then again, she really didn't mind all of the attention that she got from her parents. "Easy. They named their mascot after me." He teased her.

"Yeah. I'm sure they did." BJ agreed sarcastically.

She reached over to turn the light off on her end table, but caught a glimpse of all of her pictures that had crowded over the little area. There was her parents wedding picture with her in it, in a bigger, wooden frame. Next to it there was the picture of her parents in Korea, in a small silver frame. And then, there was a newer photo in a medium sized, lime green metal frame. It was a picture taken by Peg Hunnicutt when the Pierces were all in Mill Valley for Christmas in '68. Somehow, they had managed to get Maggie, Henry, Max, and Franklin all to sit still long enough to take a picture of them in little Santa hats with their grandfather in a Santa costume behind them. It was a pretty cute picture that BJ kept out all year long, even if it was Christmassy.

BJ couldn't imagine not seeing her little siblings or grandpa everyday. She didn't even want to think about not seeing her parents either. Sure, she could handle the week long camp that she used to go to during the summer, but this would be for months at a time. The, now, tired girl reached over and pulled the chain on the light, and threw herself into, almost, complete darkness. The beacon on the lighthouse would shine in her room softly every so often.

August 25th, 1970

"I love you." BJ was giving her tearful goodbyes to her mother at the Portland airport.

"I love you too." Margaret hugged her, not so little anymore, girl tightly with tears of her own in her eyes. "You be careful out there."

"What's gonna happen Mom? I'll be attacked by a giant ear of corn?" She did what her Pierce instincts told her to do, and made a joke out of the sort of said situation.

"It could happen." Her mother laughed as she wiped BJ's tears away and looked her straight in the eyes. "You call us at least once every weekend okay?" BJ nodded, trying not to cry anymore. That is, until she turned to give her father a hug goodbye.

"Bye Dad." Her voice cracked from emotion as she threw her arms around her father's waist. She was still a little shorter than him, but he was also 6' 4" and BJ was only about 5'8".

"Goodbye BJ." He had tears running down his cheeks as he hugged his daughter goodbye. He tried to wipe them away before they parted, but didn't quite make it in time. "I love you."

"I love you too Dad." BJ wiped her own tears with the back of her hand before going to her grandfather. "See ya Grandpa."

"See ya Bea. You take care of yourself." He chuckled, "Don't be too much like your father out there in the real world." He sent a teasing glance to his son. Daniel was getting pretty old and his grey hair had turned white, but he was still pretty young at heart and had enough energy to play with his grandkids while he watched them when their parents were working. Hawkeye had playfully given his father a light swat on the back of the head for his remark.

"I won't be." BJ laughed. She heard sniffling around her feet and looked down to see that her four, three year old brothers and sister were grabbing her legs and crying. "Hey," she knelt down, making sure not to squish any of them. "What's the matter?"

"Are…are…are we ever going to see you again?" Maggie asked. She had her mother's golden, wavy hair and looked a LOT like her. She was crying the hardest out of the four.

"Of course you're going to see me." BJ chuckled. "I'll be home for Christmas and New Years…and I'll be home all summer." She smiled.

"P…p…promise?" The little girl cried.

"Yes, I promise." She kissed her little sister on the cheek.

"You can't go BG." Max cried as he threw his small arms around his sister's neck. He couldn't exactly say BJ yet so he always called her BG instead. He had his father's nose and his mother's eyes and had 'strawberry blonde' hair.

"But I have to." She tried to tell him.

"No you don't…we can keep you under the bed if anyone comes looking for you." Franklin suggested, also hugging his sister. Franklin (more commonly called Danny) looked just like his father except for his light blonde hair and was sort of the 'Ringleader'.

Henry was the most quiet out of the four and had pitch black hair like his father and big sister. He looked almost identical to what BJ had at that age, with her father's eyes, nose, and smile. "But if we make her stay here, she'll be sad." He looked at his sister in a tone that meant he was serious (although with such a cute face like that, it was hard to make too serious of a face). "We can't do that to her." He told the other kids.

"That's right." BJ let go of Maggie and gave everyone else a hug and said goodbye to them. When she stood up, she had quite a few tears in her eyes again, but tried to put on a 'big happy face'. She grabbed her suitcases and threw her back pack over her shoulder. "Goodbye everyone." She smiled.

Hawkeye had picked up Henry and Danny while Margaret held Maggie and Daniel held Max. Everyone waved as BJ was heading further and further down the hall and onto the plane that was now loading for flight 281 to Des Moines, Iowa.

Later (Somewhere in the sky between Maine and Iowa)

BJ tried to make herself stop, but she couldn't help the few tears that occasionally ran down her cheeks. She sat at her window seat on the plane, looking out over the clouds and down to the ground that looked like a huge patchwork quilt. She knew she should be excited, and she was, but there was just something about all this that didn't seem real. She had heard over and over from her parents I just can't believe our little girl is old enough to go to college, for the past seven months. At first she was really annoyed by the comment, but now she knew exactly what they meant. She was thinking about all of this while she was staring out the window, the sun shining into the plane. While they were flying over Michigan, her eyelids began to droop and she took a nap from then until they were just over Illinois.

That Night (Crabapple Cove)

"I don't know how, but this house feels pretty empty without her here." Margaret whispered to her husband at about midnight that night after coming in from convincing the kids that BJ was indeed coming back. They had been crying all day.

"I know. Who would have thought that a house with five kids and three adults could feel empty when one of the kids leaves the nest?" Hawkeye wouldn't believe it if he wasn't living it.

"You don't think she's really leaving do you? Do you think she'll decide to move out completely when she graduates?" She sat up and had sort of a worried look on her face.

"Margaret, I think we just have to face the fact that our little girl isn't necessarily little anymore." He had a few tears in his own eyes. "Now she'll have to be the one calling the shots for her own life." He shook his head in disbelief.

"I knew this would be a hard day." Margaret didn't mean to, but she started crying a little. Hawkeye sat up and held her in his arms, silently crying himself.

Well, BJ's going to college! Haha, I thought it would be a funny twist if BJ were to go to the school where the Hawkeyes play! The Iowa Hawkeyes are a pretty big deal in my little state of nothing but corn, corn, some soy beans, and oh look, more corn! I hope you liked this chapter, but keep in mind that it was really only a filler. There's a lot more to come and I hope you'll keep reading! Thanks again to those of you who have left me AWESOME reviews! It means a lot and suggestions are always welcome of course! HIT THE BUTTON! (Oh, and I hope you don't mind the big jump in time: Going from 1968-1970.) I'd also like to mention that, it doesn't seem like it would be right, but I did the math and the quadruplets would be three by this time of the story. Once again, I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! AND LOT MORE TO COME!